Friday, 4 May 2012

Thursday 26th April to 3rd May 2012

We drove from Esperance to Cape Le Grande National Park and one
of our favourite places, Lucky Bay.We
loved our short visit there last year so made a diversion from our inland plan
to spend some time enjoying the magnificent scenery of the beach. As you can
see it is absolutely glorious. The sand is so white and the water so blue you
really have to be there to appreciate it. The sand is so fine and squeaky that
it doesn’t even cling to your feet and it is lovely to walk upon.It was a tad windy but otherwise most days
were warm and sunny in patches.

Ian had picked up the flu I caught from Norah so was feeling
pretty average
for the first couple of days so spent his days reading while I had
a lovely time with my patchwork.We had a
walk each day which we thoroughly enjoyed and after a few wistful paddles
decided to take our lives in our hands and have a swim. At first we couldn’t
decide if the water was so cold that we were numb or if it wasn’t too bad.Anyway we went all the way in just to be able
to say we swam at Lucky Bay in the Southern Ocean. Hooray for us, even if
everyone else at the park thought we were certifiable!

The National Park is really great as it has toilets that
flush --- try long drop toilets for a week if you’re laughing at us, and even
showers which are warm if the solar has any luck!They also have fresh water available which is
great as we were able to use our own showers and fill the tank, although we
were very pleased with how long our tank lasted.We don’t have any power in the park and now
that we have made some alterations to the lights our battery power lasted for
the whole week even with watching DVD’s at night so we are very
comfortable.There is no phone or
internet which was fine for the week.

Ian was chatting to the ranger who called around twice a day
until the camp hosts settled in a relayed a horrifying yet amusing story. Ian
had been asking about the little birds who are in abundance, together with the
roos, but that’s another story. Anyway the ranger was telling Ian about the
birds and what a great job they are doing controlling the flies which in
previous years had been a great problem. He then told Ian that recently he had
picked up a domestic cat in the park and was taking it back to his vehicle when
two male French tourists rushed up to him and said ”You have found our cat,
thank you!”.The rangers eyes grew wide
and wild as he said “So this is your cat?”, “Ah, yes it is”, they replied.“Don’t you know you can’t bring a cat into
the National Park” he asked askance that they had been so pleased to see him
holding their feline, in a non too friendly way as he was just about to ‘dispose’
of same. “No”, they said full of innocence, “we saw the sign that said no dogs,
but it didn’t say anything about cats!” Sigh, from the ranger as he patiently
told them it meant ALL pets. He then told them they had to take their …… cat
with them and leave immediately, at which they asked if they could have a
refund on their camping fees.He
assured them they could not and that they were lucky he wasn’t giving them a
$200 fine for their trouble and that they had better leave NOW before he
changed his mind.Ah dear, the life of a
ranger is not all beer and skittles!

One of many stories the rangers and camps hosts have I’m
sure but the great majority of campers are great we are assured.

I will keep you waiting for the photos - poor internet connection here!